Friday, April 29, 2016

Giants arrive in New York on a roll

The Giants started out the season 6-2, at which point I think many of us felt like this team was already clicking and probably would be a +.500 team pretty much from start to finish. However, the Giants offense hit a major funk while also running into some pitching problems and it caused them to lose 8 of 11 ballgames and before you knew it, they were a few games below .500.

Well, much like that first 10 days of the season, the Giants look like they've somewhat gotten their grove back. They've finally gotten back over the .500 mark, now sitting at 12-11 (after sweeping the Pads this week), heading into Friday night's series opener with the Mets. I'm really looking forward to this weekend's series as it's the Giants first big test outside their division and they're having to go into Flushing Meadows to take on the reigning NL Champions. Luckily for the Giants, they won't have to face Mets ace Matt Harvey while getting to sport their two aces Johnny Cueto and Madison Bumgarner in games two and three. However, they're not going to avoid Noah Syndegaard (who in my opinion is better than Harvey anyway) nor Jacob deGrom, one of the most underrated young arms in the game. Games two (MadBum/Syndegaard) and three (Cueto/deGrom) should be outstanding pitching match-ups in the spacious Citi Field and we may see a grand total of about 5 runs scored in those two ballgames.

Where the Giants have the upper hand on New York is their much deeper lineup, however, a lot of guys, including their star Buster Posey, are still looking to really get into their grooves. Pence and Belt have been helping pick up the slack, and Joe Panik looks like he's rounding into his .300 form with that sneaky extra-base power. They really just have to get Buster Posey, who, whether it takes until May 1st of June 15th, is gonna get it going at the plate and in a big way, to start pitching in. Also, Brandon Crawford, the all-star shortstop who hit 20 jacks last year and drove in 84 runs while sporting an OPS just shy of .800, needs to show more of that BCraw rather than the .236/2/5 line he's put up the first month. Granted, his patience at the plate still has his OBP around .350 and OPS up over .700 which are still respectable for a shortstop with his defensive caliber, we've seen him grow a lot the last 2 seasons and eventually he's gonna round into shape. Denard Span is another guy who should see his average start spiking here sooner or later. He's always been a .285+ hitter (.302 combined the last 2 seasons) and although he's driving in runs at a high rate, scoring runs and still getting on base at a decent clip, he's still got some offensive upside he's yet to fully tap into.

The Giants have a good squad people. Better than they did entering any of their Championship seasons, in my opinion. They're up there with the Mets, Cubs and Nationals, better than LA, Arizona, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, and they/'ve finally started looking it the last week. Most likely, the team that stays the healthiest out of the first four, more elite squads I mentioned will end up representing the National League in the World Series this October, barring some unforeseen fall-off, injury or something along those lines. The Giants, with the experience and depth they have, are going to have as good a shot as any, but they gotta get that consistency going. No more losing 7 of 9. If they can avoid those prolonged losing streaks, they have a good enough squad to win 95 as they're currently composed. Now if Bobby Evans and Brian Sabean go out and get another starter and/or lights out closer (or whatever need may present itself over the next two months), they the Giants could become clear favorites. Again, they have to keep up the way they've played the last week though, and not that team we saw in the middle of the month.